Stress Tests Just Part of the Game

The much anticipated results from the bank stress tests have just been released, but the one thing they're not telling you is that this whole thing is a big game and the stress tests were the government's latest move.

Think about this logically: Banks already follow strict reporting standards to the government, so what were we trying to learn that we didn't already know?

I predict that the result of the pointless stress tests will be a massive shift of power to the FDIC. I think they'll become the clearing house for anything to do with your money. Why? Because they're familiar to you already; they're the good guys with the patriotic stickers on bank doors. You know them.

FDIC chief Sheila Bair recently said the agency should have more power to take over and close insurers, bank holding companies and other financial institutions, instead of just commercial banks. I think they'll get that power and a whole lot more.

They're also playing a game with the budget. President Obama has offered budget cuts totaling about one half of one percent of the $3.4 trillion proposed budget.

There's also a game being played in the media. Wednesday, I unknowingly became a part of it.

I was speaking with Scott Levenson, the national spokesman for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN. I was trying to get his take on the voter registration fraud that their group has been accused of. But he played me. He brought me down to his level and the result was something I'm not proud of because I was acting like him; I was playing his game.

I am all for intelligent debate. I have said for years you can disagree with me, but you better be able to back up your argument with facts. This guy, the national representative for ACORN, had no real argument. As he left the set, his only defense was to call me a racist, trying to intimidate me.

Then he went into the green room and called one of my producers "doll" and asked her out on a date. What is this, the '50s? Is this guy part of the Rat Pack?

Then he left her this message:

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SCOTT LEVENSON, ACORN SPOKESMAN: Tell Glenn, he's a wimp and he fights like a girl. Gimme a call.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

Fights like a girl? Where is the outrage? Where is the National Organization for Women?

I tried to use an analogy Wednesday about the Burger King employee on YouTube who took a bath in the sink. I don't think it was that clear to the ACORN guy (Wednesday wasn't exactly a banner day for my TV career), so let me try again.

In real life the Burger King bather was fired and Burger King made a public apology and said he was a rogue employee. But imagine if instead of one employee, we found out the same thing was happening in Burger Kings across the country. Would you see a pattern? Maybe there was something with management and the culture of the company?

Now what if their spokesman came out and defended that behavior?

In a smart, responsible company, he would be fired as well. No CEO would tolerate their national representative to "misrepresent" them in that way.

Apparently the ACORN guy is not a rogue employee. He is at the top of the food chain, so you have to believe management is the problem.

Their fraud charges aren't isolated incidents, they've been charged in fourteen states. So why is this group so protected by the game players? Why are they eligible for billions of taxpayer dollars in the stimulus bill? Why have they now they've made a national partner of the U.S. Census Bureau to help recruit workers to count every person in the United States?

Why? Because it's a game. And considering that the team we're playing against can change the rules whenever they'd like, there's no way to win.